C12 engine quit while leaving a campground in Canon City, Colorado. Engine restarted, but “check engine light” remained on. Continued the Colorado Rallies and arrived in Farmington for the Int’l Rally. Called local CAT Dealer after Dave Atherton connected his CAT ET and identified a sensor calibration error. CAT referred me to a local repair shop because they mainly worked on heavy equipment versus over the road engines. Local shop flashed the ECM which corrected the problem and reset the engine check light. During the process, I asked if I could have an electronic copy of the file. They gave me the engine data for my engine which included valve and calibration information. Technician stated that he thought the ECM might be going bad.
After several months of driving, last Sunday, the engine quit alongside I40 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I called Dave Atherton and he walked me through several things to check but to no avail. He suggested that I tow our vehicle to Wagoner CAT. I called Wagoner CAT’s emergency phone number and was told to bring it in. Our next call was to the FMCA Assist Program which started a bit rough but worked out well. We were finally towed by a professional driver who treated our coach as if it were his own (scary and impressive at the same time).
On Monday morning, I went to the CAT service department to meet the gentleman I had talked to on the phone. We discussed the issues and he stated that it was probably a bad ECM on a C12. He said he has been doing this for a long time. The technician came out shortly and plugged in his CAT ET and could not see the ECM, but could view the ABS brakes and transmission. He disconnected the ECM wiring harness and connected his CAT ET directly to the ECM to eliminate coach connections. Dead ECM! Ordered one from Denver.
In the meantime, he removed the ECM and bench tested it for final verification. Then they reconnected the prop shaft and greased it. On Tuesday, the new ECM arrived and I asked the technician if he could use the engine file I had by chance obtained from the truck repair facility. He agreed to look at it. He came back with the programmed ECM and installed it. Engine started and we drove the coach to one of their repair bays where he reset the fault codes.
Lesson learned: The CAT technician stated that if I had not had the electronic engine file he would have had to pull the valve covers to get individual valve data and then put a probe in the side of the engine to calibrate sensors. When you next connect CAT ET with Dave Atherton or a CAT Dealer, please ask for the engine data file.
Dave Atherton is a valuable resource for the BAC and a friendly voice on the phone when you are broken down. He may not always be able to fix your issue, but he can give you options.
Much appreciated Dave!
AND, thanks to all our Beaver friends for your support!
